There are a number of external sales channels: franchises, affiliates, referrals, VAR/inter-connect, systems integrated, agents/brokers (to name a few). It works for more industries than just telecom, real estate and insurance.

All those models are for Sales. Remember though that isn't the same as demand or lead generation or any marketing.

MarketsandMarkets states that the UCaaS market size is expected to grow from USD 17.35 Billion in 2016 to USD 28.69 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.6% during the forecast period.

In contrast, Transparency Research claims, "The opportunity in the global UCaaS market was pegged at US$8.23 bn in 2015 and is projected to be worth US$79.3 bn by 2024. The market is likely to expand at a remarkable CAGR of 29.4% during the forecast period." [TMR]

Last year, TMR predicted, "The global unified communications as a service market is poised for staggering growth, and will be worth US$37.85 billion by 2022, finds Transparency Market Research's latest report.

There is rarely actual discussion in LinkedIn Groups any more. If there are comments, they are undisguised pitches for companies. In this particular discussion, the reader can conclude that most people know very little about the market that they are in. Apparently, competitive analysis is not a high priority.

Do you remember playing musical chairs in school? The music begins a chair is removed and you circle around until the music stops. When the music stops, you try to sit in a chair and not be left standing. Channel positions seem a lot like that right now.

This was another Me-too week in press releases. It was ILEC SD-WAN week with announcements from AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon. It was another handful of VoIP product launches. It was a handful of notifications that various master agencies inked agreements with UCaaS and other vendors.

On Friday (April 1), Frontier takes over Verizon's territory in Florida, Cali and Texas. "The $10.5 billion acquisition is a big move for Frontier.... The company's current workforce of 19,200 will increase to about 29,200 and its customer base will jump from 3.4 million people to 7.1 million. The move will also boost Frontier's annual revenue from $5.6 billion to $11.4 billion." [source]